From Firefly To Burro - An Abbot Kinney Pioneer Expands

I finally got to sit down and hang out with my dear friend Erinn Berkson last night and do some long overdue catching up. You probably haven't seen much of her either, because the woman has been simply swamped. In one of the very few Abbot Kinney mom and pop success stories, Berkson has taken her beloved Venice shop Firefly and transformed it into a mini-Empire called Burro, and expanded from her flagship space on Abbot Kinney to include outposts in both Malibu and Westlake Village. In like six months. Wow!

Asked why she changed the name when it was already so well established, Berkson said that when it wasn't clear if she'd be able to stay on Abbot Kinney with its skyrocketing rents, she had to think about what she would do next. It was sink or swim time, and she chose not only to swim, but to soar. The name Firefly never really resonated with her, but she has always loved donkeys. They are - like her - extra hard working animals, and a symbol of the Old Californ-i-a pioneering style - also very much like Berkson, a fifth generation native Californian, and one of the first shops to make Abbot Kinney "cool" in the first place.

When the opportunity arose to open in a beautiful part of Westlake Village ("Seriously, going there is like a work vacation" - E.B.), she took the shot. Construction delays happened, as they do, and in the meantime a space became available in the Malibu Country Mart. So, Hello, Malibu!

Berkson took the fixtures and stuff for Westlake Village and put it in Malibu, where they opened right before last Christmas on December 10th. Also right before last Christmas, the very day after Berkson got a storage space on Venice Boulevard to store all the merchandise for the new stores, the Public Storage facility caught on fire. Most of the merchandise was destroyed, just as the Malibu store was about to open.

Her attitude about it is amazing, as she considered her loss nothing compared to the priceless art and treasures that other people had stored there. But it was a huge drag, and the last thing she needed, with the stress of three stores going she was already dealing with. NOW I totally got why I hadn't been whooping it up with my friend, Erinn in a while. Geez Louise.

It's all good now though, in fact, more than good. All four (including the precious Baby Burro, also on Abbot Kinney) stores are open and thriving, and whenever Berkson can get away from doing inventory and ordering the thousands of beautifully curated gems you can find in her Burro stores, she cruises around to check on them, and catch up with her longtime diehard customers, often with her darling daughter, Mia (now 5!) in tow. The Westlake Village location is the first store that Berkson fully curated and planned in advance ("Abbot Kinney still has furniture in it from my old house!"), and she says it's a dream come true. I cannot wait to visit when I next go over the hill.

"Venice is my home. I live here. I love it here," explained Berkson about all of this. I'm glad we're explaining it too, because she told me that one Venice customer, not knowing who Berkson was, said right to her face, "Yeah, the owner totally sold out." Not true. At all. In fact, she's made the very best of the situation here, and along with pioneers like The Green House, Principessa, Venice Vintage, Enda King, and Ananda, they are not only standing their ground successfully, but branching out and getting bigger. This makes my heart swell, and I'm so proud of all of them for being bastions of calm and community within the influx of corporate chains that are challenging the unique sense of place that Venice has always been known and loved for. They're just not having it, and I love them for it.

And I love Erinn. I'm so proud of her for all of this, you can't imagine. I remember the days of sitting out back of the original Firefly space next door, making margaritas, writing up sales on garage sale pads ... Burro has come so far, it's truly amazing. I'm just thrilled for my dear, dear friends, and proud that so many more people are now getting to know her wonderful taste and sense of fun. Awesome.

"Venice means all these 70's artists that were living here, and still influence and shape me. They're still here, they're still working and swearing and acting like the innovators they were, and still are. People moving here now are moving here for that, whether they know it or not, and they need to have some VISION. Wealth does not mean you have to tear down bungalows." Yeah.  Berkson went on to say, "But Venice through my eyes might be different now for someone new that's 25 ..." And perhaps that's part of the hipster mentality. We'll continue to support our truly LOCAL businesses that continue to strive to make Venice different and special (and are happy to share that same magic now with Malibu and Westlake!).

Please support your original pioneers of Abbot Kinney so people will continue to know what cool truly is. Go Erinn!!!

Burro Venice/Baby Burro
1409 Abbot Kinney/1405 Abbot Kinney
310-450-6288

Burro Malibu
23410 Civic Center Way
310-456-3700

Burro Westlake Village
Westlake Plaza, Suite 960 South
805-379-9980

Burrogoods.com


*Photos courtesy Erinn Berkson.

Firefly had a Kid!

There's a new Kid in town ... called Kid! Yes, Firefly's Erinn Berkson has both had a real kid - the darling Mia Arbor - and just last Saturday opened her new children's store, Kid. I'm still in complete awe that she can even keep her eyes open after tending to her not-quite 1 year old AND creating a brand new business - in the same year. But she does ... and with style.


The last time Blogtown checked in with Erinn, Mia had not yet been born, and there was no space or time to even talk about a new business ... but a lot can change in a year. The number of strollers on Abbot Kinney has dramatically increased in recent times, and Erinn noticed when pushing her own pram about town that there really wasn't anywhere on the street that carried all the stuff families with kids need in one spot - from clothes to burp cloths, from books to toys. (Plus people kept asking at Firefly if they could carry more baby stuff, and there wasn't really any more room for it in the existing space).

As Firefly The Original has been the one-stop gift shop for Venice since 1999, so now can Kid (also the name of a baby goat - Erinn & Tim call Mia "Goat" sometimes for her deal of liking to chew on paper) be your trusted friend in the 'hood when you have to go to yet another baby shower or birthday party.


Much like Firefly, a space opened up at exactly the perfect time, just two doors down. Now there is a Firefly enterprise flanking each side of Abbot's Pizza Company! Grab a slice, get your gift, be on your merry way! Erinn's husband, Tim Bonefeld, and her brother, Chris, did a lot of the hard labor on the new space themselves (it's all very much a family affair), building gorgeous shelves, painting, all of it, and when the doors opened on April 9th, the first thing I heard someone say as they walked in was "Oh my gosh, it's adorable!" They were not wrong.


The shelves now house clothes so cute you want to stretch them out to fit your adult size (Seriously. Our own baby clothes were never so cute - or soft!). Stuffed animals so soft they might as well be real. Learning toys, like blocks and flashcards in other languages. Good old school stuff like Slinkys and bike bells. Tiny baby stuff like swaddles and baby paper. And WONDERFUL books, always books if it has anything to do with Erinn.


Firefly has been around since the '90s precisely because it is a part of the community it KNOWS. Same goes for Kid Firefly. All we heard all opening day was what a NEED there was for this kind of store on the block, and I suspect a big part of the fun over the years will be watching all the babies grow up (and patronize both stores)!


It didn't hurt that one of the cutest (and I like to add - smartest!) babies in town, Miss Mia, greeted the new customers with her excellent waving skills, when she did her first shift in the store (relax, Child Labor, she's family!). As Erinn said, "Mia's been a real trooper", as there sure has been a lot going on in her first year of life. Yet with all the work, the laughs come easy, and this stretch of Abbot Kinney is the cheeriest around.


Befitting a store such as Kid, Erinn said, "I would like to specialize in treasures and fun." That is why I love her, and that is why you will love Kid.

Stop in! Say Hi! Meet the new addition/s! And know that treasures and fun are indeed in store for you.



Kid Firefly
1405 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice. CA. 90291
310.450.6288

Firefly: Art. Funk. Jive.

"Oh, I love that store!" That's pretty much what people say every time Firefly on Abbot Kinney is brought up. It's coming up on 11 years since Erinn Berkson opened her delightful shop, and in that time she and Firefly's fun gifts have gladdened many a heart.

This story is going to be entirely biased because Erinn is one of my BFF's for life, and I've spent a lot of good times at Firefly over the years. That started from day one, when she was originally going to open up in the old Take Note space on the Windward Circle. I went in, happy that there was going to be a good card store (I love cards) in the neighborhood. I liked the proprietress immediately, and assured her I'd be her best customer. Then she got majorly burned, having bought the business, but the Landlord wouldn't give her the lease to go along with it. A very rough and stressful life/business lesson, to be sure. Erinn was undaunted though, and as they say, things happen how they're "supposed to". A space was available on Abbot Kinney Blvd. (and this was before there was really anything other than Abbot's Habit and Abbot's Pizza on the block) and she snatched it up, opening for business on May 5, 1999 - Cinco de Mayo!


Let's back up a second. I recently had a friend ask what things did you want to be when you were little, like 8 or 9, and why didn't you do them if you didn't, and YAY if you did. Well, on the day I talked to Erinn about Firefly, she told me that she'd always wanted to have a store! So now I love it even more. Erinn grew up all over the place, moving 23 times, as her late Mother would change her mind a lot about where she wanted to be. For some, this might have been disruptive or hectic, but for Erinn, she loved knowing a lot of different places, and it enabled her to always do her own thing and not follow any pack. She wanted to be an artist, she wanted to be a writer, and she wanted to have her own store. All things she still wants - and is - today.


After studying Art History and Spanish at school (University of Arizona - Tuscon), she came back to California to help watch out for her younger brother, and somehow this artsy lady got a job at an investment firm, 8-5. Wearing nylons and all. That could only last so long with her colorful spirit, so she then bounced around a bit, working at Mani's Bakery, taking UCLA Extension classes on writing Children's Books, and loving it. Then one day, on a total whim, she chanced upon Take Note, going out of business. She told them she'd like to take it over. She had NO experience, had no idea how a retail business worked, or even where you got merchandise for a store. She will tell you, it was the hardest, longest, most ignorant way possible to do it, but she had the FIRE in herself to get it done. Once the whole Take Note space fell apart, she took her chair and sat outside of the Abbot Kinney space to stalk it, as the Landlord was like the Wizard Of Oz, unreachable and never returning calls. When she finally snagged their attention, she begged and pleaded with them until they relented and gave her the lease. The lease on what she now describes as a "Haunted Mansion". There was stuff everywhere, old aquariums and junk, and her family thought she had absolutely lost her mind.

She worked her head off, cleaning and prepping, and asking strangers, "How do you do this? "Hi, how do you buy?" "Oh, you need a re-sale permit?" etc ... and soon found her way through it all. This is an excellent lesson to take from Erinn ... "If you have an idea, do it. I did it knowing NOTHING, but I wasn't going to let that stand in the way of my dream. I was too naive to think that it might NOT work, I just knew it would ... And I'm STILL learning."


Firefly has been busy since the day Erinn opened. She is a Cornerstone of Abbot Kinney (in the middle of the block), and the go-to spot for excellent gifts in Venice. She won't say this, but I will, and that is that she was a real Pioneer of the Abbot Kinney we enjoy today, creating what I think is the first real destination store on the block. She knew from the start she wanted to be in Venice, as changing though it may be, it will always draw more eclectic, more creative people. "I didn't ever say, 'I want a store on Montana' ... I'd murder myself." Exactly.


Erinn used to live in Idaho for a bit, and didn't think she'd want to live in L.A. again with all the traffic, etc ... but once she hit Venice, she found that it had all the best elements of both places. Small town vibe (neighbors dinging their bike bells hello), sense of Community, art openings, and culture. Firefly has certainly embedded itself in our Community, and Erinn is a very active member ... donating to events and organizations left and right, volunteering, and welcoming one and all to her whimsical world. That world got a little bigger last year when Firefly moved into its current space next door to the last, and the light, airy new digs are even better. She'd always admired the 1409 space, and ran to the phone as soon as she heard it was available.

Change is inevitable, and Erinn has seen a lot of it. She loves the new stores and restaurants that have joined her on Abbot Kinney, and is a big supporter of buying and eating locally. Though she is NOT a fan the Food Trucks on First Fridays - "And you can quote me on that" - which "Take the soul out of it". As all of us seem to be, Erinn is mixed about the "Spring Break Cancun" feel that has evolved from when First Fridays was drinking some wine at your friends' shops and hearing their friends play music on the back porch. Those are some of Erinn's fondest memories of the store, as well as chilling in the back of the old space with margaritas, and the end of long holiday season work days, closing up and toasting with her long-time friends and neighbors.

Every item in Firefly has been chosen with love and fun by Erinn, and it really is a great spot for cute clothes, baby gifts, excellent cards, Art and Kids books, and my current favorite items, Angela Adams bags made out of sail cloth, and little Mexican wrestler masks for your thumbs! She never runs out of ideas, and is constantly spending nights far past midnight, re-arranging, making cool displays, and keeping one step ahead of the next day. "It's not easy work, it's not glamorous, it's always a work in progress, but I love what I do, and I love it HERE."


Her customers love it too. I'll fill in for her sometimes at the shop, and it's a constant stream of people coming in and expressing their love, both for the fun present they just bought (perhaps for themselves) and for Erinn. Their kids have grown up stopping into the 'Fly to get a sparkly ball or great new book, and she's seen them bloom from babies into cracking voiced tweens. The most joyous news is that those customers will now have the chance to see HER baby grow, as Erinn and her husband, Tim, are about to have their first child ... and her due-date is Cinco de Mayo, the same day that she birthed her wonderful Firefly!

I own lots of "Vintage Firefly" that I've had to keep, imbued with the accompanying fond memories. In those days, Erinn's business card said, "Firefly. Art. Funk. Jive." I loved that then, I love it now. And I love Firefly and Erinn. It and she are truly a Community Treasure, and I'm so thankful that she threw caution to the wind eleven years ago, and gave us Firefly ... with all its art, funk and jive.

OK, enough talking about it. I'm heading there now.


Firefly
1409 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice, 90291
310.450.6288